Green Mountain Valley School senior Tess Hanley and her 15 senior classmates have begun planting a community garden at the Fayston campus of the school.
Hanley said she and her classmates were planting in a 12-by-18 foot garden featuring raised beds that are 2-by-3 feet in size. Last week they began planting cold hardy plants with Hanley planting carrots and strawberries and others planting potatoes and herbs.
“We’re prepping the soil for it and making sure that each thing we plant can be growing next to something that supports its growth,” she said.
The garden is the a final class project for the students’ biology class, Hanley reported.
The graduating seniors graduate at the end of May and after they leave campus, dorm parents who remain on campus with students will be the main people helping to maintain the gardens.
“We’ve talked to parents and kids who live locally and we’re hoping they will volunteer this summer to help out. Each year at GMVS, each student has to do 10 hours of community service so hopefully local underclassmen can help preserve the garden as part of those hours,” Hanley said.
Students envision that some of the food will be donated to the local food pantry and the rest will be given to community, student and staff volunteers who want to work on the garden. Additionally, they anticipate that produce from the garden will be used to help feed participants in a two-week lacrosse camp slated for this summer. Produce harvested later in the summer will be used in the GMVS kitchen to feed students and staff.
Hanley is excited to get the word about the garden out the community so that people can donate, volunteer, offer gardening tips, share or swap gardening tools and supplies, and more. Haley is from New York City and will be attending Syracuse University next year, studying broadcast media and journalism. Until she graduates at the end of this month, she can be reached at
